What got you into biking?

[maillotpois]

Where did you go to school in Maine?

Veronica

Yeah, really - where?

I was at Bowdoin 1985 - 89.

[GLC1968]

Bates - 86 - 90

[maillotpois]

Bates - 86 - 90

So close! Funny. small world.

[GLC1968]

Very small world - it seems to get smaller as I age, too!

Oh, and that roommate of mine with the Trek? Yeah, she was from Marin County.

[Veronica]

So funny. If I had stayed to go to school in Maine, I probably would have ended up at Bates, Bowdoin or Colby. But I just had to get away at that point in my life. I'd have been class of '89 like MP.

Yeah, Thom and I have been thinking we needed to go back to Henry Coe. It's amazing what a little strength and confidence will do for you.

Veronica

[PamNY]

I bike because it's fun. I thought it would be a good social outlet, too, but the group rides I've observed don't look safe.

[hirakukibou]

I am 47 years old and had never been an athlete, until now. Growing up I was more interested in poetry than sports. I was a member of the literary club in high school snubbing anything as physical as football or running. However, I knew, a year ago, when I fell in love with David that a lot more exercise would come into my life. What I didn’t know was that it would change me profoundly. David is an avid cyclist and has been for twenty some odd years. I was an avid couch potato without the slightest interest in anything that could be called exercise. But, I liked being with him and he was on the bike.

I remember the first time I rode from Arlington to Bedford on the Minuteman Bike Trail. I had to stop at every large rock to rest and catch my breath. When my energy flagged and my pedaling slowed, he would come up behind me and rest his hand on the small of my back and give me a push. I needed those pushes, like the small child on the swing who can’t quite get going. I made it to Bedford and back. That was three and a half years ago.

Since then, I have cycled about 15,000 miles. I own six bikes. I work teaching bicycle riding at The Bicycle Riding School. I am a ride leader with the NEBC Women's Ride. I ride with two clubs. I have done the Harbor to the Bay AID charity ride twice and will do it this year as well. It is a 125 miles in one day. I do a lot of my own wrenching. I am learning to build wheels. Our apartment looks like a bike shop -- we have no kitchen table but instead have a work stand. I have lost weight and am more fit than I was in high school. My life has been consumed by all things bicycle. It has a life of its own and I have made it my own. Now, I can't imagine my life without cycling.

[Crankin]

My DH and younger son got me into cycling. I had really enjoyed riding as an early adolescent and rode everywhere on my 3 speed Raleigh, on some tough hills, too. I loved it because as far as other sports went, I am a total failure. I was in remedial PE as a HS sophomore and I have horrible eye hand coordination. Don't like competition too much, either! But, when I was in remedial PE, I found out that I like fitness oriented stuff and I have good endurance. This was in 1969, when individual sports were not popular and there wasn't much out there for girls.
I rode until I moved to Miami and no one rode or walked. I had a couple of cheap bikes, later, in AZ (5, 10 speed Univegas) in grad school and when I was first married, but I never rode more than 5-10 miles. I distinctly remember riding the *wrong way* down Rural Rd. between Elliot and Chandler Blvd. in south Tempe, and having a bad experience with a car, and never riding again for a long time.
In the meantime, I got into aerobics/step and became an instructor. Basically, after 10 years, I got burned out, and while I still went to classes, it was in a half hearted way. I started gaining weight, my cholesterol went up, and I wasn't feeling too good about myself. During this time, my son started running and then mountain biking, in 1999. MY DH bought a mountain bike and started going with my son. I had been encouraging my DH to do something because he was getting FAT and the tennis he played wasn't helping. When my son signed up to go on a 3 week tour from MA to Maine, Vermont and back, we bought him a road bike. As a surprise, my DH bought a road bike while he was gone and started going out to practice riding before my son came back. I didn't know my DH had ridden as a kid, like 50-70 mile rides. Well, my son came back from that trip a riding monster... he went out and did a century with a group of adults the week he came back! He started racing that fall and pretty soon my DH couldn't keep up with him.
Around this time I got serious about losing weight and started walking and seriously going to aerobics again. In the fall of 2000 my DH refit his mountain bike for me and bought me shorts and a jersey. He took me out on a 6 mile ride where he had to push me up a small hill with the back of his hand. Even though I was humiliated, I was hooked. After all, I was supposed to be the fit one! I rode that bike for 2 years and in September 2002, I bought an entry level Cannondale road bike. My son (and by this time we had our German exchange student living with us, who was also a racer) went out with me at 6 AM on a Sunday and taught me to use my clipless pedals!
Pretty much I haven't looked back since. I'm on my 3d road bike and also have a hybrid and mountain bike. I became a bike trip leader for AMC, but I have kept that to a minimum, since I was starting to burn out on that, too. My DH has mellowed a bit and we ride together all of the time, even though he is faster than me. Our goal is to ride off into the sunset on our bikes when we die...

[crazycanuck]

Sorry for the long post

(I think I had a bike when I lived in Edmonton but not sure what it was..I wasn't into cycling but certainly remember cycling to work in the early parts of winter.)

I think it was 2004...We were living in Auckland & I had a trip planned to visit family back in Canada & knew I wouldn't have a job when i returned. Anywho, ventured back & upon return to NZ, I suggested to Ian, I'd like to buy a bike. We were both overweight & oddly enough the gym that we were members at moved & I wanted something else. So, we bought cheap bikes as we had no idea if we'd enjoy it or love it. We started cycling to work & thought we'd die when we had to cycle 10km. Ended up discovering Woodhill in Auckland (fairly new then) & of course Rotovegas , sparking our love affair with dirt..

Crap bikes were stolen(someone did us a huge favour!!!) & ended up with new bikes that were too big (we didn't have a clue at the time..). We were transferred to Perth a year later. We are heavily involved in the mtn bike community & have a good crew of friends who do dirt as well.

We've gone from couch slobs to riders active in mtb club races, enduros, 6hr & 12hr events.

Road doesn't do it for us-great training tool for dirt though!

I've attached an old photo from 2002(prior to cycling & getting my thyroid under control) & one from our quick visit to NZ last christmas. Ian often opens old photos such as the first one i've posted to stop me from whining about my weight.